Whether former FFXIV players will notice the recent update remains to be seen.

If a tree falls in the woods, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The answer to this question may be relevant to Final Fantasy XIV, which underwent a significant overhaul during last week’s all-worlds maintenance. The version update was the first of two life-saving surgeries for the ailing MMO, which was roundly blasted by fan sites and the gaming media soon after launch day. The next major version update, which will focus on adding new content, is planned for December.

For two months, dissatisfied and angered gamers flooded the fan sites to voice their displeasure with the game. Other players simply left; some moved to the fence line, while others cancelled their subscriptions. Many said they would return once the game was improved.

It’s hard to say whether the game’s consistent population has changed dramatically since the update. During the maintenance, Square Enix removed the feature that allowed players to see how many others were logged in at any given time. What I do know is that my mostly empty linkshell is still mostly empty. We have more than 20 members, most of which were Final Fantasy XI players who were rearing to go in Eorzea – and they’re not back yet.

Granted, I have just one linkshell, and I’m just one person. But the camps on my server don’t seem any fuller than they did a week ago, and I’m not seeing huge crowds of people around the guildleve counter either.

The forums are definitely more positive now than they’ve been since launch day. Our FFXI General Forum isn’t filled with rant threads and angry posts directed at Square Enix. Perhaps more importantly, the community’s response to the first large update has been overwhelmingly positive. There is definitely concern over how the update has affected party play, and the new UI has rough edges in need of polishing.

Still, the successful update hasn’t seemed to translate into more players, at least not to the degree that I expected – which is strange considering how many players claimed the UI was their top issue with the game.

Not even a week has passed since the update, but I can’t help but feel a slight sense of concern. The source of my concern is the tree-falling-in-the-woods dilemma. In terms of bringing players back to Final Fantasy XIV, did this massive update matter if nobody was around to experience it?

The December update could be another chance for Square Enix to entice jaded players back into the game. The update is supposed to focus on content which, in my opinion, is needed more than the improvements to the user interface. Don’t get me wrong, because I love the new user interface, but what good are better, smoother controls if there are still too few reasons to use them? Perhaps more players will return once they’re given more to do with their time in game.

Then again, maybe the December update won’t bring players back. When all is said and done, maybe the greatest contribution of this year's massive updates will be to keep more people from leaving.

After all, the Playstation 3 release -- which is right around the corner -- is certain to bring more players to the game. The game will be more full and polished by then. Perhaps most importantly, gaming magazines are likely to review FFXIV from the perspective of PS3 users. Assuming Square Enix continues to aggressively improve the game, the PS3 launch could be an opportunity for Final Fantasy XIV to garner some positive press. And that would be a great thing, but even glowing reviews in March may not bring back the players who have already left. If they're not back by the end of December, they'll be long gone by spring.

Until then, I'll keep logging in and checking my linkshell list. I'll hope to see my old FFXI friends, who were all so excited about playing FFXIV. If only they were logged in right now, they would understand why they should be playing this game.

But when the tree fell, they weren't around to hear it, and I'm not sure if they'll ever be back.

Comments

Ummm.. Is it true WoW still doesn't have a auto sort without third party programs? Hmmm.. Are you really mad at the beginning of a game? Or are you mad you just can't get windower yet.

*on a side note* Remember the good old days of XI, where you could jump in the zone and get mauled by 20 mobs hanging at the zone line? Good times good times.. We laugh about it now, but then we wernt laughing very much about it, were we? Just sayin!

I created an account just to reply to thise post. FFXI changed my life, I played it since I was about 16 and quit at the age of 20. I'm now turning 23 and I still speak to the players I met on FFXI. With that being said, it is safe to say that I love SE. I've been a huge fan since FF7.

Arguments for SE:

I think from a corporate point of view the devs did not want to release as early as they did. However the "powers that be" wanted to release before the WoW expansion pack and newer MMOs with big hypes (DC Universe, Star Wars, etc) around them. It was a rushed release, I dont care if they said its been 5 years of development it seems like 1 to me- but I dont think its the devs fault. I think they wanted to seriously battle RMT this time around. If anyone was around in FFXI during the time of inflation or towards the RMT invasion of Sky time you know that RMT activities in FFXI ran wild for a while. That is why they took off "auto attack", that is why they made crafting a little more difficult (you have to press a few buttons as oppose to a one-button thing). They created this daily level crap that could give you gil on a daily basis (More than FFXI did for beginning players it was hard to earn gil at first in 11) after 2 days of leves I could earn 100k easily. Lastly, they reformatted the Auction House system because of de/inflation (Although they claim it was to be innovating). You have to give them props they did something new to fight RMT. Even though everything I mentioned sucks. I also think they seriously wanted to make a BRAND new game. Listen, I loved SEA, SKY, I kicked **** in Dynamis and HNMs were a daily routine for me. But I think they wanted to sway away from 11. Most of the people who have post on the forums are ex-11 players who probably miss it to some extent.

They did come up with some pretty cool ideas. I think that with more work the RANK vs. Physical level system could actually be a work of art. Adjusting your points to different things such as STR or INT is also genius, maybe not now but for end game and long term its a sensational idea. I think the crafting system is actually fun, and is something I look forward every time I log in. I also think they out did themselves with the graphics.

Arguments against SE: I really do think though that the arguments against the game over weigh the positives. I'm sticking to this game however, I'm trying not to bounce from MMO to MMO and focusing my free time on one game. But it is hard, even for a SE fan like me.

-Auction House is needed. Point Blank. -I know they wanted to create a system for "CASUAL" players b/c you did have to grand alot in 11 as well- for those who remember. But this surplus thing is insane. -The simple mechanics of the game are not smooth. I'm currently a RANK 28 Conjurer and I'm telling you I've felt like killing myself in some of those exp grinds I've done. Its slow, boring and not smooth. I would merit for hours on 11 and cap my exp and everything and have fun. - CONTENT. They need to add more things to do in the game. I'm tired of fighting the same mobs, walking the same areas, and seeing the same gear.

Everything I mentioned could be fixed in 1-2 major 4-5 hour updates. I think they recognize their mistakes. I dont think that they deliberately wanted to ***** up the game. I think they rushed release to compete with WoW, and I think they were a bit too ambitious with the new stuff they created. But I also think there working on it. It will get done. EVERYONE is complaining from us Americans, EU players, and even home-grown JPs dislike the game. I saw a picture of over 40,000 special editions being torched by Japanese players in protest of the game.

Too answer the original post, Are players coming back? I dont think so. The market is over-saturated with MMOs these days. 2-3 MMOs come out every year. Especially us western players we have no patience. But for the ones who do stay and play. CONTINUE to criticize the game, because with constructive critic comes change- and be patient they will get to it. For those who hate the game, cancel your accounts for a few focus on real life, play console games and come back in March - Because myself and the others prefer that then hearing obvious complaints all day.

Im still playing for now, but I found november updates sucky (like my english XD). Example the return anima dropped... I never used return unless I'm dead... if I have to return I just death warp. Is true that linking leve is good for SP. But on the other hand, SP party to me seem stupid. I prefer the old way, with fixes for mages and other jobs that couldn't get many SP. Of course, someone would say "but then you will exp to fast". The answer at last for me is no. 1) Because I have craft classes to raise and so doesn't have time for raise craft and battle classes, exping a little fast would help me to keep some rank up, compared to PPL that spend more time to rank up a battle class. 2) Even if I make 60k exp in 3 days, I would hit soon or later the Surplus. This would be good because I could rank up my craft jobs or farm shards/items without think "oh god have to rank up pugil for stay at the same rank of my other friends and play with them in high leve". At last my opinion. I find horrid the way for rank up too a craft job. Here hardcore players could not agree with me, but from rank 30 it start getting annoying to rank up a craft, too much is the requirement for rank up. 50k from 33->34 seem exaggerate to me, specially when local leve give you a 80% of rank 1~15 leve and you are rank 33. Talking of UI... I find this game a blog. Too many **** widgets, for a monitor like mine they obscure like 50% of screen. But the most thing that make me furious, is I asked since beta that puking (aka f*ing) menu Linkshell fixed, with possibility to /lsmes, with possibility to promote/kick members offline or far from you and so on. I wonder if that voices that I heard are true. I heard SE kicked some developers for cut costs, 3 months before the official release, but then SE seen they couldn't make it in time, so SE called back the developers, but they showed off their balls refusing. So the game was left incomplete. Well thats my opinion of the game atm. Im aware is still new so have to wait. For now tho I can't find many "pro" but only "cons".

Star Wars: TOR is out next March, and looks very, VERY impressive.* I will not be returning to FFXIV, ever. I will never pay full price for a Final Fantasy game again. Fool me once (XII), shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me (XIII). Fool me three times, you've lost a customer.

*You can replace this with Cataclysm, and now. And the rule will apply to a **** of a lot of people.

I personally don't give a crap if people don't come back.. that just means more stuff for my LS to do without being interrupted by WoW newbs. At the moment, my LS is 80+ strong with about 3/4 of those people active and all of us are enjoying the game a great deal.

Right now we are enjoying the game... doing Behest and Leves is fun when your whole LS does it with you. Our 15 man parties have been lasting 8-10 hours... if not longer... with people gaining 2-3 levels while doing them. If you you are getting bored with the game, you are playing it the wrong way... stop soloing and try doing leves in parties and for god sakes, try out some Behest.

I agree that there are some issues with the game, but I can guarantee the majority of them will be fixed by PS3 launch and with alot more content by then too. So what if you couldn't sort inventory at launch... you realize that this is currently still not possible in WoW without an addon to do it for you? People complain about the UI so much... they don't stop to think that the WoW interface out of the box, without addons is even worse (not talking about lag here) and the game has been out for years now.

All the people crying about FFXIV's flaws can go back to your single player MMO you call WoW. No MMO has been perfect right out of release. People seem to have forgotten that as they were expecting so much out of this game. Give it time, it will get better. Look at FFXI's JP release, it was apparently a lot worse than this, and it's still going strong almost 9 years after. The only difference is this release had a lot more coverage than FFXI's.. expectation were HIGH.

I should add, that a week ago, my CON was only level 20. I got it to 27 just by doing leves + behest with my LS. We all grab our daily leves and then just grind them all out in a 10 to 15 man party. You only have enough time to do 3-4 leves before a Behest begins, so usually one camp will last about 2 hours (2 Behests) to get all leves done, before moving on the next one. If you haven;t done this, you are missing out. It's serious fun and serious SP, especially if you several links for your leves. 7 leve-links + Guardian's Aspect + 10 ppl party bonus SP translates to several hundred SP per mob. Most I've seen so far is 400 SP, but I'm sure it can go higher with more links. It's crazy fun.

I personally don't give a crap if people don't come back.. that just means more stuff for my LS to do without being interrupted by WoW newbs. At the moment, my LS is 80+ strong with about 3/4 of those people active and all of us are enjoying the game a great deal.

lucky you.. but what about those whose friends/ls-mate abandoned the game? we're left with no one.. :(

Talwin wrote:

So what if you couldn't sort inventory at launch... you realize that this is currently still not possible in WoW without an addon to do it for you?

actually.. you can :) do your research :D

Talwin wrote:

All the people crying about FFXIV's flaws can go back to your single player MMO you call WoW. No MMO has been perfect right out of release. People seem to have forgotten that as they were expecting so much out of this game. Give it time, it will get better.

most of them already have :) true.. no mmo got a smooth release.. but all we're saying is that the game should be released with 'basic' and working functions. The majority feels that the game is more frustrating than fun. If you're the 'oldscool' kinda guy and are lucky enough to have such LS mates that feel the same as you do, then good for you.. but what about the others? FFXIV not gonna live on out of the minority of people. They need subscribers! When they released the game they said it's gonna be on the top of the list. The fact is, it's not even close. That's why we have such expectations towards the game. We expect it to cover all, if not most, of the basic contents/functions/necessities right in the beginning.

Now.. comparing to WoW (Oh Noes! x) ), when wow got released, it got contents for even low level players. it got many different quests in many different places (as opposed to levequests), and many different dungeons/instances (with bosses and stories in it) as opposed to the caves in XIV that most people blindly massacre flying jellyfish or humongous crabs. So, each level we gain, we got new stuff. I'm not saying that WoW's perfect.. you can gain level faster than anyone can say "corn in a cup". but still.. it has the basic necessity for people to stick around and find out what's waiting for them next.

If you're comparing ffxiv to ffxi launch.. than you're an idiot. We all know that launching a game at the state like FFXI was, is a mistake, and yet SE does it again.. In my country there's a saying, "A donkey wouldn't fall into the same hole twice". Yet, I see SE is. :/

I know you dont care if people leave now.. but what happens if the only people in your server left is you and your ls-mates? luls. if you like that then YOU might as well go back to your single player RPG. :)

Look.. I know you're tired in hearing people rant/bash/burn SE for FFXIV flaws. But I'm sure most of them do because they actually want the game to work. There are a lot of people who love the game and still playing (I'm one of them). Also there are A LOT MORE who got so frustrated and disappointed by the game. A lot of them got burned with anger.. all I'm saying is, dont fight fire with fire.. what you're saying is just making them feel worse and want to rant/bash/burn more.. :)

just my 2c :D

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[ffxivsig]1819009[/ffxivsig]

Mikhalia the Picky wrote:

It's well known that MMORPG stands for "Many Men Online Role-Playing as Girls"

I myself was waiting for the November patch to see how it was going to be. Then they said they were splitting the patch into 2 parts, so I'll have to see what it will be like after the December patch.

In my opinion, there seems to be something inherently wrong with the programming of the whole game. There is lag doing everything, and even if the UI is sped up, it is still has a "klunky" feel to me.

They did release the game way too early. Most of the bugs they fixed in the November patch were all addressed in the beta, but they decided to release the game anyway. I say it's always better to wait to release a product and fix it up before releasing it and making everyone pay for a game that is still broken.

I really hope they do something with the party seeking or whatever it is, because I can't seem to figure it out or be able to find a party.

I really like FFXI but since they decided to raise the level cap and have all these small $10 add-on expansions it killed the game for me. But I think for the most part the game is getting better than it was because SE is finally listening to the people. I don't understand why SE didn't listen in the beta of FFXIV.

Now I know a lot of people like WoW, but I was never able to get into the game. I have quit the game 4 times now, playing about a month or 2 after each expasion. The game got way too boring to me, which is what I think is going to happen with FFXIV.

I really love the party aspect that is in FFXI. It almost forces you to party which is good in a way. Having 6 people beat on a mob that would normally kill you pretty fast soloing is exciting to me.

One of my issues is, if I can solo a game, I do. I'm not sure why I do, but then it almost becomes a single player RPG to me when I do that. Which is ok for a while but gets boring. Which was why I didn't like WoW.

I know I wrote my thoughts down kind of haphazardly, but I had to say it.

I really hope the December patch fixes the rest of my qualms with the game. I really want to like this game, and I'm not trying to bash it.

Yeah I don't really see much of an increase of server pop either. My linkshell is also still dead, even my friends list.

As far as I see it. The one who have stuck around will be the ones SE will be listening to for current issues and fixes that need to be addressed. Weeding out the useless people who keep screaming the game isn't more like another game. Who wants to play the same game with different skins and a pretty look? If your adding the same components, your just changing a story, not creating a new game...

every single mmo i ever seen or played people say the same thing, no matter what games forums you go to even ones that been out forever. cant make everyone happy

the ones who quit dont post they are gone, the ones who say they quit but are still posting are still playing or why whould they be wasteing there time to post topics on a game they dont even play. mental issues.

I still think its hilarious how many people are judging the November update as anything more than a glimmer of hope. Their not gonna fix the game in one update, or two. Don't waste time checking in until PS3 release. I for one am fine leveling jobs to 20 for a few months until they'res a reason for me to grind.

On the one hand losing players is bad as that means less other ppl to play with in an mmo - never a good thing. But then from this aspect the fix is : amalgamate the existing servers.

On the other hand I was getting sick and tired of the whinge & moaning. All they ever seemed to do is complain complain complain. Even then it was never another new or well-thought through complaint, they just seem to pick up the content of earlier negative reviews and keep running with it. It became a meme. You know there are a few things I don't like with FFXIV, but at least I send SE feedback on why and give them suggestions on how it could be improved.

I like FFXIV.

Due to it's flexibility I like it a whole lot more than I liked FFXI in the end.

I like it the way it is now, even though there are things that can be improved upon.

I'm looking forward to being there to witness those improvements.

I like the atmosphere better with the majority of the whingers gone.

My main concern is that this continuing whinging will kill the game when I want to keep playing it.

No party is as big as the launch. That show is over and we we're all disappointed.

- Well except the alcoholic SE fanboys - which are always such downers at parties anyways... Complain that there's no cups and they tell you to drink with your hands.

Now - Old School SE wasn't much better and they'd tell you "Hey this party is a 'drinking with your hands only' party - we're not trying to do what all the other parties do."

No one liked this so people decided to bounce pretty quick - ***** drinking with hands, right

...then SE tried to play it cool like "Okay fine we'll get you cups, well not cups exactly - they don't have bottoms but they're cup-like, they have sides...they're SE's version of a cup, we do our own thing."

...And can you believe it - people still weren't satisfied.

So SE finally caved and said "Okay, okay, god people are so demanding you know we only had like 5years to put this party together - nothing's ever perfect the night of. I mean expecting cups for beer and all. Okay cups are coming - they'll be here soon - or soonish - like 3months.'

At this point you can guess what the SE-lopedia drunks were saying - "***'em more beer for us - don't give them cups. They don't respect the beer."

I mean jeez who wants that drama so pretty soon it was a dead party.

Now SE is trying to convince everyone to stay for after hours but most of us aren't hearing it.

It's already been such a disappointment.

But SE is like, "Look we heard you - we got cup! 'er Cupz! something like that - whatever - you don't have to drink with your hands!"

Now people are thinking "Well, the beer's kind of flat and there's nothing to eat."

New School SE was on it - "Yo' we got this, we're way ahead of it!. We got pretzels on-the-way!"

Now everyone's thinking "Really just pretzels? I don't know... Lets get some real food. We need to sober up..."

Its too little too late for myself. Only reason I haven't canceled the game yet is because its still free. With WoW Cataclysm coming out this coming Tuesday, I will not drop it for a game thats not finished. I mean, it took them how many months just to add in a simple inventory control like "sort inventory"? What does this say about their game? Moreover, what does this save about the FFXIV devs? And despite it being free, I haven't played it since the beginning of October with the exception of logging on to the game and seeing how many people were on in my LS, which alot of the time, just me with sometimes one or two other people out of a LS made up of 50 people. Its because of FFXII, FFXIII, and FFXIV that I will no longer trust anything made by SE. My faith and trust in them is forever gone, never to return.

Its too little too late for myself. Only reason I haven't canceled the game yet is because its still free. With WoW Cataclysm coming out this coming Tuesday, I will not drop it for a game thats not finished. I mean, it took them how many months just to add in a simple inventory control like "sort inventory"? What does this say about their game? Moreover, what does this say about the FFXIV devs? And despite it being free, I haven't played it since the beginning of October with the exception of logging on to the game and seeing how many people were on in my LS, which alot of the time, just me with sometimes one or two other people out of a LS made up of 50 people. Its because of FFXII, FFXIII, and FFXIV that I will no longer trust anything made by SE. My faith and trust in them is forever gone, never to return. Not even a remake of Final Fantasy VII would help them as they would more than likely ***** that up beyond belief just as they did with FFXII, FFXIII, and FFXIV

Not even going to consider coming back till their is an Auction House... and even then I prolly won't.. but it definitely would get it reinstalled on my computer for a little while. I miss the structure of 11.

Over the past couple years Square has forgotten what makes a game playable. They have followed the Japanese trend that demands high end and cutting edge graphics, and have forgotten that although the game is shiny, you need an actual story with identifiable characters and a plot that someone wants to immerse themselves in.

Long gone are the days of FF9 or FF7 where a story was accented by cutting edge graphics. Tragically The reverse is happening, a story is being built second to the graphics and battle systems. Don't misunderstand me, The artwork and battle systems are needed to make or break a game, But grinding mundane tasks in a richly developed environment that have no relevance to your character or that progress a plot, are still just a way to keep people busy when you haven't actually created any content.

I feel that everyone who thinks this game will be fixed by some patches to an interface and the battle system has forgotten why they like video games in the first place. Let go of the dream that is FFXIV and move on, this game has no sole. It has only the artwork and physical mechanics that are meant to bring a deep and compelling story to life. Unless square enix hires all the top 10 best fantasy writers at once and works out some content over the next 2 years, I'll be spending my time waiting for Tera, the chicks are hotter!

This game was in development for 5 years. Twice the time that it took for FFXI.

It had a 3 month beta process.

It launched without a way to sort your items.

I get that games can launch with bugs and annoyances. I understand that being an early adopter, content will be sorely lacking. I comprehend that FFXIV is a work in progress, and that it will get better as time goes on.

But you launch a game lacking a BASIC FUNCTION? A function that it takes two months to code into the game? Does this bode well for the game?

I don't care how good some aspects of this game are, when you launch a game that lacks basic functions, and with other glaring errors, then you've set yourself up for failure before you start.

Pile on a poor item acquisition system, a player-based economy, a poorly documented and implemented crafting system, an apparent intentional AI behavior which causes mobs to run away, and a poorly designed UI... and what, exactly, are you offering when you are competing for business with a sea of other MMOs that are already very polished and content-rich?

FFXIV was supposed to be FFXI's successor, meant to steal its thunder and its userbase for its own. Instead, it's yet another failure by SE, in a growing line of them (FFXII, FFXIII, Just Cause 2). Square-Enix has lost its way, badly.

It's listening to its investors and ignoring its players. It's designing in a vacuum again and refusing to learn from past mistakes. Sure, they are taking more input than before, but by a slight margin. FFXIV should be scrapped and written off. It will never achieve any form of success to compare to the moderately successful predecessor, and for the same reason: The dev team thinks its **** doesn't stink.

Yes, I know SE posted what they were trying to fix/address in advance and that it wasn't even close to making the game worth playing but I was hoping it would be a step towards it. The patch proved just how incompetent SE has become and that's when I threw the towel.

All the so called fixes I saw were so half-witted they only promise a future of mediocre performance from the FF14 dev team. Fix the UI lag by spreading it across all other server functions.. yeah like that's going to work down the line. Fix the too many menus problem by... making more menus? /facepalm. Fix the SP issues by lowering SP required per rank and changing the SP system so its either too little for soloable critters or time-ineffective for parties? give them a darwin award for that one.

The problem with this game is the core of its design. Everything from the leve system to the SP system to the most basic game mechanics is horrendous. Worse yet, for a Final Fantasy game, the storylines are bland and unimaginative.. there just isnt the 'final fantasy' feel to this game at all. I can pick up a FF game from 8 years ago and get the FF feel on the first 5 minutes. Here its just not there.

What this is IMO, is nothing but a rabid attempt by an amateur development team to copy elements from other MMO's and market it with the FF brand name. Oh, we know how much SE loves copy paste dont we?

All in all, it all sums up to this:

Final Fantasy 14: A game not on par with a game made 8 years ago and that took 5 years to make.

I think it's funny how everyone always thinks they know what it takes to actually create an MMO, have it work correctly, and continue to create content for it at the same time. I personally think it's pretty funny that almost every MMO that has come out has major problems in the beginning, and yet every time an MMO is first released people are amazed, shocked, surprised and maybe even disappointed at the state of the game. As an MMO vet, I came into FFXIV expecting a huge mess on top of a game with great potential. And I was right...

To be honest, I can compare the launch of FFXIV to almost any other MMO release out there. Sure, there's a lack of content, sure, there's a pretty clunky UI, and sure, there's not much to look at in terms of eye candy (the graphics are awesome but there's no birds and filler like someone mentioned up there).

But those are the negatives that came with the game when it released. I don't even want to go into what problems some other MMO's had when they were first released, and even more so the problems they've created even after it was released.

FFXIV actually has some things going for it that almost no other MMO I've played really had in the beginning. One of those things is the stability of the server. I haven't played almost any MMO that has a server as stable as FFXIV. I've only disconnected once since the game has released. And the server is basically always up, I never even get caught by the maintenance (probably cause they do all their work in their time zone?). The graphics are awesome and once they take the time to add more scenery it will look better than any other MMO before.

I'm not being a fanboy or being biased (mainly because I think the game could use a lot of work (and dont get me started on FFXIII)), but I'm open to the idea that an MMORPG doesn't have to follow the EXACT formula as its predecessors. There's two reasons why I strongly believe this. And I also think that even when it comes to other games (or even other forms of art/entertainment) people are too comfortable with the same thing being fed to them over and over again (Call of Duty anyone?)

1 - Originality is always welcome if it's not garbage. 2 - A lot of the "tried and true" MMORPG mechanics are the reasons why MMORPG's didn't become widely known until World of Warcraft came out.

And my honest opinion on the success of World of Warcraft was the fact that when it got REALLY big it was no longer trying to be a traditional MMORPG and create their own thing. Personally, I can't stand what World of Warcraft turned into, but I think they deserve praise for actually taking the MMORPG idea and making it their own.

I think FFXIV is taking a similar approach. They're obviously using some ideas from past MMORPG's, but at the same time, it's easy to see the originality that lies in the game.

Bottom line: FFXIV is on it's way to becoming one of my favorite games of all time. It's definitely not even close to that yet. But I personally find it to be the only MMO worth playing right now (if you're not into WoW - I think WoW is still a great game if you play it as someone who's never played it before). (Also keep in mind I'm not an MMO freak that can play a game for 15 hours a day, however I used to play WoW obsessively - those days are behind me), It's fun enough to be playing right now (especially since it's still free ;P) and it's exciting to know that it'll only get better as time passes. While I do believe the game was rushed, I think there's a lot of potential, and I think that at it's current state is still better than most other MMO's out there.

I personally feel the MMORPG genre itself is basically a crappy one except for those few developers that try to break new boundaries. Keep trying something new, and eventually you'll find something to stick to. If there's anything to learn from all of this, is that there's no risk with reward. Unfortunately, in this day and age, people will buy anything they think they have to buy or should buy. (Cough cough....Call of Duty?)

I think it's funny how everyone always thinks they know what it takes to actually create an MMO, have it work correctly, and continue to create content for it at the same time.

mm.. it's not that we think we know what it takes to create an mmo.. we're saying these things based on our experiences as players. Also, those people who talk about technical stuff might know what they're saying. Maybe they're dev team from another mmo or maybe work in the IT business.. who knows *shrug*.

This November patch has not done its job well enough IMO.. I, personally, am waiting for the December patch and hope that it will turn the game upside down.

I'm still playing tho.. I can't refuse anything that's free :P So.. yeah.. lets see how it goes and hope that SE will meet all our expectations and bring the game to the top of the list.

GO GO, SE! Get your heads out of your a$$es!! :D <3 /cheer!

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Mikhalia the Picky wrote:

It's well known that MMORPG stands for "Many Men Online Role-Playing as Girls"

Anasha is spot on, we aren't saying we know exactly how to make MMO, but at the same time, I think it's much fairer for players to say what they like or don't like, that's all.

anasha wrote:

mistachristufa6 wrote:

I think it's funny how everyone always thinks they know what it takes to actually create an MMO, have it work correctly, and continue to create content for it at the same time.

mm.. it's not that we think we know what it takes to create an mmo.. we're saying these things based on our experiences as players. GO GO, SE! Get your heads out of your a$$es!! :D <3 /cheer!

We all feel, SE is listening more than normal, or what can be expected. But at the end of the day.. we will be playing the game a month from now? Yes or No? And as much as we can praise SE for trying and listening ~ the bottom line is, is the game playable?

I just can't say it's FUN... should I go back to playing Need for Speed? Heroes of Might and Magic? There is nothing in FFXIV which at the moment doesn't feel like a massive grind, to the point of being a massive disapointment.

My understanding is that there has been approx 800,000 solde with 240,000 in Europe, about 200,000 in North America and LESS than 200,000 in Japan, which I thought would be there biggest market... Roughly 160,000 odd in my parts like Australia & rest of the World. This means that people are staying away and people have listed to all the bad reviews.

And as much praise people wanna give SE for their efforts, the bottom line is the game, has a CLUNKY system which impacts on the Game Play, which is so below par... If you like the graphics and world, great but watch the " FFXIV Copy Pasta video" and you'll quickly learn that SE has taken massive short cuts here as well.

If they don't get it right soon, people won't pay and worse, the injection of players they hope to get from the PS3 won't come and any chance this MMO has of surviving will be lost. In all honesty ask yourself, if you bought the game now. And started playing and had a chance to get your $80 (Australia) back after a week, not talking about Subscription fees, would you?

I applaud you. This is what I believe to be true. The game does need to be polished up, but in the end, when you look at it, it's going to be a work in progress nonetheless, as most MMOs are. I just wish more people could see it that way.

Whaaaaaaaaaaa… You know other then the cost of the game itself, I’ll listen to people ***** about it, when they start paying a monthly fee. It’s a good game and can only get better (everything else I’d like to say, mistachristufa6 already said).

Thayos...your Blog posts are way to negative...I'm playing on one of the less populated servers among all, and I definetely can see an increasement in Camp crowds and around the Adventures Guild counter. It's not huge, but its definetely there.

Where I was seeing like 4-5ppl max the week before the update at any Camp around the cities, I can now see 10~ easily at any time, and a lot more right after leve resets and the adv guild counter is more crowded as well. There were some specific locations I saw many ppl hanging out when bazaaring or w/e, and those were almost empty close to the update, after the update I see ppl hanging out there regularly again.

The last update is a huge improvement and I love the game. Also, I found this great Linkshell of American Players. They are very active and are veterans of FFXI. I fully intend to play for many years. I recently tried playing FFXIV on 2 monitors using ATI's Eyefinity technology and I was blown away. Now I am hoping Santa will bring me a 3rd Monitor for Christmas. SE is obviously working hard to make the game enjoyable, so if you are considering playing (or returning) give it another shot!

They did make a valiant first effort with the patch. I just don't know that waiting 2 months to patch things was such a good idea.

They could have implemented the reduced anima cost for the return command almost immediately. They could have done quite a few things in small patches - just something to show that they actually REALLY cared about our player experience rather than some showy big giant update/fanfare that they PROBABLY hoped would cause people to return.

I'm in a Japanese LS that has about 94 people. I think I'm lucky to see more than 20 people on anymore when there used to be close to 50 people online before.

The Eorzea experience has improved thanks to this patch but it still has its rough edges. Hopefully the December update smooths things out and we get something closer to the Eorzea we SHOULD have gotten right out of the box.

I’m thinking that some FFXI players are thriving for party based content like missions that involves 10-15 people parties fighting humongous Ladybug that puts everyone to sleep for 2 mins while 5 mages outside the party scramble try to wake the 10-15 ppl up while the Ladybug tries to farts on the slept party. This is a simple concept game play that I think FFXI players would like to see, something crazy and somewhat ironically hilarious. The rewards don’t need to be super duper good, just decent enough to make the players thrive to rank up high enough fast to fight the humongous ladybug. The run arounds to get access to the ladybug fight has to be just as enticing with cool cut scenes and good story line. I mean don’t get me wrong, getting beaten up by a ladybug or even fighting one with 5 man party don’t make sense to me in FFXI but it was hilarious enough that I kept talking about it for a week back then. Or maybe a Giant Rabbit that throws eggs and paralyzes a 15 man party. SE please start implementing party based contents/missions/HNMs. I know it’s a double edge sword because Gil sellers will start to flock in but they already did on some servers, they are slowly ranking up and waiting for the right moment to start the mass marketing. I’ve already seen some on Mysidia. It would be a huge plus if SE can make these type of party based contents and making it hard for gilsellers to ***** server economies, but I know it’s a tricky thing to do but a really good party based content is much needed right now to get ppl back.